One of my favorites: global reorganizations and transformations, are hatched at the C-suite and board level and handed down to the C-1 level for execution. Now, guess who’s the last to get the memo but should actually be the change agents? You guessed it—it’s right in the title—the middle management.

An organization’s durability relies not on the top executives but on those who proudly wear the title of manager or senior manager. Think of them as the middle class of a society; without them, a healthy, functioning economy is impossible.

For a successful transformation, change needs to ripple through both the top and middle layers of the hierarchical pyramid.

Companies often rely on external vendors with relevant experience, credentials, and a small army of skilled professionals equipped with the necessary tools to tackle the project. However, vendors are just that—vendors.

They will never be the true agents of change. Their role is to shape the path, provide solutions, and offer guidance on implementation (and sometimes do the implementing). But they can't replace the people who will ultimately need to adopt these changes.

I’m not a fan of the term "Change Management," but I believe it's crucial to view vendors as TRANSITION MANAGERS. Their task is to empower and leverage the organization's resources, not substitute them.

Let's face it: those deep-diving experts who crunch all the numbers (figuratively speaking) and whip up solutions are indispensable. But, thanks to their laser-focused expertise, their solutions often need a bit of tweaking to fit the bigger picture. So, how do we handle that?

In the consulting world, there's a term called "mile wide and a meter deep" expertise (though personally, I'd look for folks who can wade a bit deeper). These are the unicorns who understand business, technology, and communication, have the right level of strategic thinking, and—let’s not forget—emotional intelligence. Because, at the end of the day, transformations are about shuffling people into new boxes with new tools and responsibilities. The real trick is figuring out how to make them successful in their new habitats.

Why is kind of the easy one, growth , market share, achieving goals , share prices all the usual suspects, it gets messy when you move to the how especially when you ignore the elephant in the room.

The HOW is a tricky question tied to substantial budgets and an army of suppliers however they are not the ones that have to take the difficult decisions.

Large scale transformations are not gentle or for the fainthearted because they are disruptive in their nature. Honestly about the ruffled feather and how many will be left (feathers or people) at the end of the journey. 

Oh that brings me to the next point, just scroll down and help yourself​​

Stuff will go wrong—guaranteed. Sometimes, things have been going wrong for a while, yet everyone keeps pushing ahead, hoping it will magically get better.

So, how do you reset a journey halfway through?

And how do you handle micro-crises and put out fires effectively without losing focus on the bigger picture?

You can, and you must. Every transformation requires a multifaceted senior hands-on team that's ready to jump in and tackle any crisis. But what do those elusive firefighters look like well that brings us to the last point.​

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